Compatibility and Mobility are two key characteristics of an effective Password Management solution. Together, they help build a balanced platform by providing network admins the ability to manage varied networks, while affording their users with the ability to access their accounts whenever, wherever and however they want.
The need to maintain a solution that is open to new technologies that can work on and with multiple platforms is essential to the fluidity of effective Password Management. So too is the need for that solution to respond and react to current and future mobility trends. A couple specific examples which best illustrate this point are Office 365 and Google Apps.
Microsoft’s next-gen Office flagship is a hosted subscription that includes access to Office applications plus other productivity services that are enabled online such as Lync Web Conferencing and Exchange Online hosted email for business. This includes additional online storage with OneDrive and Skype World Minutes for home.
According to Microsoft, as of 2013, one in four enterprises is already using Office 365. Their Home version reached one million subscriptions faster than Facebook. Microsoft continues to aggressively push Office 365, and recently announced a series of new APIs that are aimed at increasing the functionality of its cloud Office Suite. By doing so, Microsoft hopes to:
allow developers to create powerful independent applications that can interact with Microsoft Office. For example, an application will be able to interact with your Office 365 calendar, and another application will be able to borrow your emails, contacts, and files to perform automated services. So the Office 365 API will give clever developers the opportunity to create a host of new applications and services that will greatly benefit users.”- Bidness Etc.
As impressive as Microsoft’s surge with Office 356 is, it’s actually a response to what Google Apps has already accomplished in this market. According to an announcement at the Google I/O conference in June 2012, Gmail has 425 million users plus five million businesses that also use the Google Apps for Business suite. Google announced at the Google I/O in June 2014 that Google Drive had 190 million monthly active users, and that eight percent of the Fortune 500 companies as well as 72 of the top universities are using Google Drive.
At Nerverpoint Technologies, we were pleased to recently announce the next public release of our 1.2 stream, which includes added Google Apps and Office365 connectors. Now, our clients and their customers can seamlessly access their accounts and manage their own personal identities more easily regardless of whether it’s a Google or Microsoft network.
If you’re not a customer, download the 1.2 release and evaluate it fully for 30 days, hassle free. We think you will like what you see.
This Blog was brought to you by Nervepoint Technologies and its CEO, Lee David Painter. With over 20 years of industry experience as a pioneer in IT Security, Lee developed the world’s first OpenSource browser-based SSL VPN (SSL-Explorer). Today, Lee runs Nervepoint Technologies, a leader in Password Self-Service solutions. 
